- I think just because this startup botched OKRs they still make a lot of sense.
Intel and Google apparently relied on them heavily in their formative years. But:
- they should be cascading (so conflicting OKRs between departments should not happen)
- you should never, ever tie them to individual performance results/compensation/rewards
- I can totally relate to the premise of the blog post. Thinking (for most people) benefits from some sort of free form scribbling and drawing to make sense of it, and realize what you're missing. At least for me it makes a huge difference.
I remember reading a tip more than a decade ago from a senior developer, that you should always have pen and paper next to your keyboard, to take notes, visualize problems, keep notes of where you are. Most of the thinking happens there.
When I'm working on bigger things alone, it helps me keep track or the bigger picture, how to keep separation of concern und understand where my abstractions started leaking.
Moving that pen and paper to digital unfortunately was never low-barrier for me. I thought about acquiring a reMarkable for that purpose, but it isn't perfect either.
I used excalidraw in the past, but it also does not integrate too well with my environment.
Now, with everyone being remote I would really love to have something that not only replaces my own scribbling and conceptualizing, but also serves as "whiteboard" for collaboration. I clearly clearly miss the whiteboard when discussing abstract things/ideas/problems with peers.
The app mentioned in the post seems a little abandoned unfortunately. Does someone out there use something similar?
- While I agree with what you wrote
> [...] GPUs that run HDMI over DVI [...]
I thought HDMI and DVI use the same signalling (at least the 'digital part' of DVI, was it DVI-D?), just over a different connector?
In my memory only the connectors competed for adoption, and Home Entertainment industry opted for HDMI and the PC-industry opted for DVI, while the signalling was not contested (besides DVI also being able to carry analog signalling with full spin-out, and HDMI carrying audio instead). My memory might not serve me well here though.
I never thought HDMI would win :( but it makes sense I guess - Computers/their use changed :(
- It's not that clear cut it seems.
For private drivers it is not illegal per se. But if you have an accident, they (police, prosecution, insurance) will quickly blame it on unfit shoewear.
There is (legally accepted) consensus in Germany and Austria that a regular, closed shoe without heels gives you best control.
Barefoot is IMHO treated unfairly, if you're used to drive barefoot. And living in a country where people wear shoes most of the time, they will assume you're not used to it.
- There is plenty of words written on what the difference is between leading and managing.
True leaders are role models, not higher-ups, the ones where authority comes from competence, not position, showing the way, not just telling what to do, facilitating self-organization, giving direction, prioritizing, giving vision and perspective, not orders, fostering intrinsic motivation.
- This still reflects badly on the leader:
- Stuff going on you're not aware of?
- Things spiraling out of control/becoming self-directed?
- You forgetting what you did or said a few months/years ago, and getting mad on others in consequence?
- Your intentions not well understood?
All of this is on you (the leader). That's reason for resignation.
The behavior around it is just childish IMO. I wonder how this affects him being able to do his job.
- That's why I don't see e.g. TP-Link basing their router firmware on OpenWRT as a win, and why I want the "vanilla" upstream project (or something that tracks upstream by design) running on my devices.
Applies to all of my devices btw. I don't like Android having to use an old kernel, I didn't like MacOS running some ancient Darwin/BSD thing, etc. The required effort for backporting worries me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying OSS has no vulns.
- I think here is the common misunderstanding:
No one says Agile can't have full blown requirements or the respective documents.
To the contrary, you can't expect your dev to understand what he has to write without giving him a goal he is working on - Agile won't fix that.
Agile just means you build in small steps from what you have and review your steps ASAP, instead of working multiple months based on some detailed documents, derived from other documents, written by some other department months ago, building stuff no one wanted in the first place.
- Yeah, right. Since if there is snowfall we get out of the car and shoo the flakes away. Or scream at the sun to stop blinding us.
Humans have something called perception and cognition, we can make sense of things we don't see.
AFAIK we don't have cameras yet that can do that. We need better sensors.
- Yes!
And wouldn't it be preferable if you were so connected to your coworkers that you could say that (maybe not in these exact words), and either have better meetings, or be free to leave this particular meeting?
Do you really prefer sitting for hours in anonymous meetings, working on something else, just so you were "there", but not "there"?
You could work significantly better without all that nonsense in the background, right? Maybe even discussing important things?
And idea what is holding you back?
- Oh, everything popular before Zoom sucked so bad. Getting on a call was incredibly complicated, getting someone else in a call even more so. I got deflated whenever I saw a WebEx mail.
There were alternatives... But Skype was getting worse by the day, moving from decentralized to MS servers for all calls, and support for everything besides MS and the official App was also non-existant.
Google Calls/Hangouts/Meet/? was mistrusted by all MS shops (and still is)
Teams was nowhere it is right now beginning of the pandemic, and required buying into the Ecosystem.
In fact, Zoom was a (!) low entry, mostly platform-independent solution that was easy to set up if you had nothing to start from. And joining a call was not asking much from customers, students, business partners, etc.
All the competitors learned a lot from Zoom and we take these things for granted now.
There were other solutions of course, but sometimes you're lucky, and ads help.
Smartwatches, Phones, (most) Cars, TVs, ... all of these are mass produced, and as such completely obsolete in a few years, even if they are sold as "premium" products for a month's salary.
Unique, manufactured Design pieces are... timeless. It's a piece of art. And I say this without any inclination to ever join that market.